Blather.net photo blog

Month: March 2008

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Tom Park Fountain, Napier, New Zealand, originally uploaded by blather. Download the high resolution version » Tom Park Fountain, Napier, New Zealand. Napier is New Zealand's Art Deco town - completely rebuilt in 1931 after an earthquake. Tom Parker owned a men's outfitters shop in Hastings Street and was a colourful town character who made many gifts to worthy causes and to the city. On one of his regular visits to Britain he was impressed by a modern, illuminated fountain at Bournemouth. On returning to Napier he donated Â£1,000 for a similar fountain which was built on an area previously occupied by a children's playground.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } ANZAC War Memorial, Sydney, Australia,, originally uploaded by blather. Get the high resolution version » ANZAC War Memorial, Sydney, Australia. Finished in 1934 after designs and art by C. Bruce Dellit and sculptor Rayner Hoff, it commemorates the Australian War dead of World War One. Many of the original sculptures didn't make it in the memorial, thanks to censure by the Catholic church, and its bishop, Michael Sheehan. 'The sculpture that caused the sensation, The Crucifixion of Civilisation, is pictured below. It is shocking. A naked figure on a cross, a young woman, sits atop a pyramid of broken soldiers, corpses, weapons, helmets, the debris of battle. The detail is hyper-real and brilliantly executed. Hoff described the symbolism of his central figure: "Adolescent Peace is depicted...

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Taipei 101, originally uploaded by blather. Get the high resolution version » From a brief stopover in Taipei last year. This is the top of the famous Taipei 101 - it took forever to walk to it! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This 101 floor skyscraper, over 500m high, is in Taipei, Taiwan. As of November 2007, it was the world's tallest completed skyscraper. Designed by C.Y. Lee & Partners and constructed by KTRT Joint Venture, it can be seen from all over Taipei and it is built to withstand typoons and earthquakes. The Burj Dubai in Dubai will soon overtake the Taipei 101 for height. The main tower features a series of eight segments of eight floors each. In Chinese-speaking cultures the number eight is associated with abundance, prosperity...

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Mirror Lake on the road from Te Anu to Milford Sound, Fiordland, New Zealand, originally uploaded by blather.. Get the high resolution version » Mirror Lake on the road from Te Anu to Milford Sound, Fiordland, New Zealand. This is an old photo from four years ago, shot on my old Sigma SD-9 - terrible camera, this one of the half decent shots though.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Doubtful Sound, Fjordland, New Zealand, originally uploaded by blather. Get the high resolution version » Doubtful Sound, Fjordland, New Zealand - named by Captain Cook, has he was unsure that he could navigate it by sail - and he worried that if he entered, he might not get back out. Without doubt (pun?), one of the coldest places I've ever been in my life. It was July, so Southern Hemisphere winter, in a region that gets 8 metres of rain a year, and I was wearing seven layers on my upper body. Yet, I couldn't get warm. But mindblowingly beautiful. Photo made July 2004

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Young acrobats practicing in Peace Park, Taipei, originally uploaded by blather. Get the high resolution version » This was a surprise - instead of just "hanging out" on the weekends, young taiwanese acrobats throw each other up in the air in the Peace Park, Taipei- and no safety net!

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Terry, protestor at Rath Lugh camp, originally uploaded by blather. Get the high resolution version » Terry, activist from Cork, standing beside a stream that now runs under the partly built M3 motorway that is controversially cutting through the national monument of Rath Lugh, an ancient promontory fort that was a defensive position for the Hill of Tara, the sea of the High Kings of Ireland. Behind Terry is a large mound of construction rubble. The trees in the photograph will be cleared by the motorway construction.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } The woods at Rath Lugh, originally uploaded by blather. Get the high resolution version » The Woods at Rath Lugh, near Skryne or Skreen Co. Meath. These woods on the the esker and beside the promontory fort of Rath Lugh that are currently being threatened by the construction of the M3 motorway between Dublin and Navan.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } The Woods at Rath Lugh, originally uploaded by blather. Get the high resolution version » The Woods at Rath Lugh, near Skryne or Skreen Co. Meath. These woods on the the esker and beside the promontory fort of Rath Lugh that are currently being threatened by the construction of the M3 motorway between Dublin and Navan.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Tara activist JP Fay in his hut at Tara, originally uploaded by blather. Get the high resolution version » Tara activist JP Fay in his hut at Tara. Fay, from Trim has been one of the long-term activists in fighting the M3 motorway's path through the Tara area. He and other proposed an alternative route that was turned down, and was one of the "Tara Four" jailed for refysing to bail conditions to stay away from the construction site.